Whoever it was at Playground games that responded when asked what they can do to improve on the success of Forza Horizon 4 with "more cutscenes of clay faced dweebs saying how cool you are and a non-skippable phone call packed with cringey dialogue after literally every race" should be forced into a piñata and have the life beaten out of them by children with baseball bats. The graphics are marginally better, the collection of cars is marginally more expansive, the map is new and interesting, but ultimately it feels identical to the previous game except for one major difference. In Horizon 4, the focus was rightly set on the racing, whereas in this game there is this weird focus on Mexican culture that just feels so out of place in a racing game. I get it, we are in Mexico, but I don't care about the little parades, or the jade statues, or Aztek ruins I just want to race... Leave me alone. And I literally laughed out loud during the character creation section with all the inclusive junk like being able to have prosthetic limbs and hearing aids for some reason... There's nothing inherently wrong here, but was it really worth it in a game where you spend most of your time sitting in a car and when you do see your character in a cutscene he is usually saying something so cringey it makes you want to cut off any remaining limbs he has and beat him to death with them? I mean honestly there are roughly 8-10 male hair styles yet literally over 100 different types of hearing aid, like wtf were they thinking? This and the over the top celebration of Mexican culture just screams of white people at their worst and most pandering... And it honestly put a sour taste in my mouth regarding this game. Though the racing, as usual, is quite good.